whichlib

Name: whichlib
Author: josifb

by josifbversion 0.2.4i★ –iComputer or cloud

Registry nameio.github.josifb/whichlib

Install

Overview

Description from the maker (original English)

Dependency picker for coding agents: recommends, compares and scores GitHub repos with a verdict.

PopNx MCP’s three pillars

These three are never merged into one score: opinions, measurements and popularity are different things.

User voiceiNo reviews yetReviews open together with accounts in a later step
Our basic checksi1 of 1 passedChecked from public information; code not scanned yet
UsageiNot measured yet★ –

What you can do with it

We have not written a plain-language summary for this one yet. Below are the facts we read from the registry.

Connection: Computer or cloud
Transport: stdio, Streamable HTTP
Category: Developer tools
You need to fill in: GITHUB_TOKEN, X-GitHub-Token

Install

Pick the AI app you use, then copy the settings.

Before you install

Basic checks: 1 of 1 passed
Runs on the maker’s server: what you ask it goes through their server.
You fill in yourself: GITHUB_TOKEN, WHICHLIB_TELEMETRY, X-GitHub-Token

Values marked secret are keys to your account. Never share them or paste them into a chat.

You need

Runs in the cloudNothing to install; it connects over the internet
npmNode.js installed (for the npx command)

Which app do you use?

ClaudeClaude CodeCursorVS CodeChatGPT

Pick your app above. We remember it, so next time the button says “Install in …”.

This address needs a key in a request header, which the add-connector menu cannot set. Use Claude Code, Cursor or VS Code instead.

Or run it on your computer

Open Claude Desktop → Settings → Developer → Edit Config, and paste this into claude_desktop_config.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "whichlib": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "whichlib"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GITHUB_TOKEN": "your-value",
        "WHICHLIB_TELEMETRY": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Run this in your terminal

claude mcp add --transport http whichlib https://whichlib.com/mcp --header 'X-GitHub-Token: your-value'

Or run it on your computer

claude mcp add whichlib --env GITHUB_TOKEN=your-value --env WHICHLIB_TELEMETRY=your-value -- npx -y whichlib

Fill in the empty values before running it.

Open in Cursor

Or copy the settings yourself

Paste into .cursor/mcp.json in your project, or ~/.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "whichlib": {
      "url": "https://whichlib.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "X-GitHub-Token": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or run it on your computer

Open in Cursor

Or copy the settings yourself

Paste into .cursor/mcp.json in your project, or ~/.cursor/mcp.json

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "whichlib": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "whichlib"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GITHUB_TOKEN": "your-value",
        "WHICHLIB_TELEMETRY": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Your browser asks to open the app, then the app shows the settings and asks you to confirm. Key values are left empty for you to fill in.

Open in VS Code

Or copy the settings yourself

Paste into .vscode/mcp.json in your project

{
  "servers": {
    "whichlib": {
      "type": "http",
      "url": "https://whichlib.com/mcp",
      "headers": {
        "X-GitHub-Token": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or run it on your computer

Open in VS Code

Or copy the settings yourself

Paste into .vscode/mcp.json in your project

{
  "servers": {
    "whichlib": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "whichlib"
      ],
      "env": {
        "GITHUB_TOKEN": "your-value",
        "WHICHLIB_TELEMETRY": "your-value"
      }
    }
  }
}

Your browser asks to open the app, then the app shows the settings and asks you to confirm. Key values are left empty for you to fill in.

This address needs a key in a request header, which the add-connector menu cannot set. Use Claude Code, Cursor or VS Code instead.

Your choice stays on this device in a cookie; no account needed.

Values you fill in

GITHUB_TOKEN secret env
Optional. Raises GitHub's search limit from 10 to 30 requests per minute. A fine-grained token with no permissions is enough.
WHICHLIB_TELEMETRY env
Optional. Set to "off" to disable anonymous call counting (tool name, random install id, version, platform, Node major). DO_NOT_TRACK=1 also disables it.
X-GitHub-Token secret HTTP header
Optional. Your own GitHub token for unlimited use (otherwise 50 free calls per day). Used for your request only, never stored.

These settings are generated from the maker’s registry entry. If the README says otherwise, follow the README.

What it can do

We have not read this server’s tool list yet; we check endpoints in rotation.

Basic checksi

We check information anyone can see; we have not read the code. Checks that do not apply are left out of the count. · Checked Nov 6, 2026

✓ Pass
Maker matches the repo
The registry name was verified with the GitHub account josifb, which owns the repo
… Not checked yet
Still maintained
We have not read this repo from GitHub yet
… Not checked yet
Has a licence
We have not read this repo from GitHub yet
… Not checked yet
Endpoint responds
Not checked yet; we check endpoints in rotation
… Not checked yet
Sign-in with OAuth
Not checked yet; we check endpoints in rotation
… Not checked yet
No hidden instructions in tool descriptions
Not checked yet; we read the tool list when we check the endpoint

Compared with others in Developer toolsi

More stars than 0% of the other 1389 servers in this category
Published to the registry more recently than 82% of the other 1389 servers in this category
Basic checks equal to or better than 100% of the other 1389 servers in this category

Compared with every active server in this category in the registry. Stars count only when the publisher owns the repo.

Common questions

Is whichlib safe?

It passed 1 of 1 applicable basic checks. We have not read the code. Before adding a key or token, see what access the server asks for and use a key with only the permissions you need.

What keys or codes does it need?

You need to fill in: GITHUB_TOKEN, X-GitHub-Token

Does it run on my computer or in the cloud?

Either way works: install it on your computer or connect to the cloud version.

Is it still maintained?

The GitHub repo last changed –, and the latest version (0.2.4) reached the registry 9 days ago.

Which apps can use it?

Apps that support MCP, such as Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor and VS Code. It connects by URL, so apps that accept remote MCP servers work too, such as ChatGPT in developer mode.

What can I use instead?

In the same category: GitHub, Desktop Commander, Cloudflare MCP

Alternatives

Servers in the same category from other makers, sorted by stars.

Reading a card:★ GitHub starsiThree pillars: reviews · checks · usageiUpdated = latest version published to the registryi

GitHub

by github

GitHub’s official server lets AI read and manage code, issues and pull requests in your account. Use GitHub’s hosted version or run it locally with Docker.

Computer or cloud★ 34,245MITUpdated 3 days ago

Install

Desktop Commander

by wonderwhy-er

MCP server for terminal commands, file operations, and process management

Runs on your computer★ 10,225MITUpdated 15 days ago

Install

Cloudflare MCP

by cloudflare

Cloudflare MCP servers

Runs in the cloud★ 4,446Apache-2.0Updated 14 months ago

Install

README from the maker

Open the README

Copied from the maker’s repo as written. PopNx MCP has not reviewed or endorsed it. HTML, images and scripts are removed. Links lead off this site.

whichlib

The dependency picker for coding agents. Ask which library to use and get a scored, verified answer instead of a guess.

whichlib is an MCP server with three tools. It speaks MCP 2026-07-28; older clients keep working. Every repository it returns carries a transparent 0–100 score (momentum, maintenance, adoption including npm and PyPI downloads, license), a tier, a one-line verdict and the full breakdown, so the agent can justify the pick and you can read why.

For teams (waitlist): alerts when a dependency your repos use goes stale, and rules your team's coding agents must follow when they add one. Add a 👍 to the waitlist issue; at 20 signups it gets built. whichlib itself stays free.

Install

Claude Code:

claude mcp add whichlib -- npx -y whichlib

Cursor, Windsurf and other MCP clients:

{ "mcpServers": { "whichlib": { "command": "npx", "args": ["-y", "whichlib"] } } }

Requires Node 22 or newer. No account, no API key.

Use it without installing (hosted, no Node needed):

claude mcp add --transport http whichlib https://whichlib.com/mcp

Limits and the web API: https://whichlib.com/docs/

Tools

Tool	Ask	You get
`recommend_repos`	`need` in plain words, optional `language`, `limit` 1–10	The best repositories for the need, ranked by fit (score × relevance), with downloads and a verdict each
`compare_repos`	`repos`: 2–10 names as `owner/repo`	The repositories side by side, best first, same breakdown
`trending_repos`	`period` day / week / month / rising, optional `language`, `limit`	Most-starred repositories created in the period, scored; `rising`: repositories of any age by stars gained this week

Example, in Claude Code: "which Python PDF parser should I use?" → MinerU, pdfplumber, pypdf with scores, weekly downloads and verdicts like "Rising fast, 26k downloads/wk, pushed 3 days ago, Apache-2.0".

Score

Part	Weight	Signal
Momentum	40%	Stars gained over 7 days (from daily star counts when available), else stars per day since creation, scaled by the npm/PyPI download trend when known (0.5–2x). Log scale.
Maintenance	25%	Days since last push, full marks to 30 days, zero at a year. Widely used repos (10k+ stars or 100k+ weekly downloads) never drop below half.
Adoption	25%	Stars, forks and npm / PyPI weekly downloads, log scale.
License	10%	Permissive 1.0, weak copyleft 0.75, strong copyleft 0.5, none 0.

Tiers: Strong ≥ 75, Solid ≥ 50, Watch ≥ 25, Avoid; repos younger than 30 days are New ("Too new to judge"), whatever their score. Archived repos are capped at 20. On a 20-need eval the top recommendation is an accepted answer 75% of the time and the top five contain one 100% of the time; the eval and its reports live in the repository.

Environment variables, all optional

GITHUB_TOKEN: raises GitHub's search limit from 10 to 30 per minute. A fine-grained token with no permissions is enough. Recommend makes three searches per call.
WHICHLIB_HISTORY=off: do not download daily star counts. By default the server keeps the last 10 days in ~/.whichlib/stars/, refreshed in the background at most every 12 hours from raw.githubusercontent.com, so momentum uses real stars gained per week for the top 1,000 repos per language and new trending repos. Nothing is sent with that download.
FRESH_REPOS_DATA_DIR: a folder of daily snapshots or star counts to use instead (see the repository's data branch).
WHICHLIB_TELEMETRY=off or DO_NOT_TRACK=1: disables anonymous call counting. What is counted: tool name, a random install id, version, platform, Node major version, the MCP protocol version of the call. Never queries, repository names or results. The aggregate numbers are public at https://whichlib-telemetry.todorovskijosif.workers.dev/stats.

Source, dashboard, data

Repository: https://github.com/josifb/whichlib (MIT). It also holds the Fresh Repos dashboard (most-starred new repositories, day / week / month, sortable, one HTML file), the nightly snapshot and enrichment jobs, the recommendation eval, and 80+ unit tests.

Development, from the whichlib/ folder of the repository:

npm test           # unit tests, no network

npm run mcp:smoke # start the server over stdio and call every tool live npm run eval # 20-need recommendation eval (set GITHUB_TOKEN) npm run snapshot # today's top repos per period and language -> data/snapshots/ npm run enrich # add npm / PyPI packages and weekly downloads to the latest snapshot npm run score # top repos from the latest snapshot with score and verdict npm run pull-data # copy snapshots from the data branch

Layout:

mcp/server.mjs         MCP entry (stdio)        mcp/tools.mjs       tool logic

mcp/expand.mjs query expansion mcp/telemetry.mjs anonymous call counting mcp/github-api.mjs GitHub client + cache mcp/data.mjs snapshot history provider mcp/eval/ needs, metrics, runner, inspect, results/ lib/score.js the score, shared by browser and Node snapshot/src/ query, normalize, github, registry, enrich, history, run, score-report, pull-data dashboard/index.html redirect to whichlib.com/repos (Fresh Repos)

whichlib

Overview

PopNx MCP’s three pillars

What you can do with it

Install

Before you install

Or run it on your computer

Or run it on your computer

Or run it on your computer

Or run it on your computer

Values you fill in

What it can do

Basic checksi

Maker matches the repo

Still maintained

Has a licence

Endpoint responds

Sign-in with OAuth

No hidden instructions in tool descriptions

Compared with others in Developer toolsi

Common questions

Alternatives

GitHub

Desktop Commander

Cloudflare MCP

README from the maker

whichlib

Install

Tools

Score

Environment variables, all optional

Source, dashboard, data